Hi,
> Debian was the first distro I looked at for the purpose. I saw its RAM
> requirements were 512 Megs (recommended) and 64 Megs minimal. Xubuntu
> on my 1 Gig system takes up about 540 Megs on an idle system with no
> swap used at 60% swappiness.
540 Megs seems to bit off for Xubuntu. My Xubuntu system uses around
256MB for an idle system plus few programs like pidgin and xchat. How
do you define an "idle" system ?
If you have the bandwidth and the patience, you can use the minimal
install CD provided by Ubuntu. However, I think you may be better off
by looking at existing distros and analyzing the programs using the
memory.
HTH,
Devendra.
--
May the Source be with you.